This shopping blog has been talking a lot about mobile phones recently, but there were some nice, high profile phones coming out for the Christmas period. One of the latest is the Prada 2 - but how does it fare against the more established iPhone 3G?
I think it’s fair to say that the iPhone raised the bar for how mobile phones look and their usability, but they’ve also got poor specifications for the gadget fan - an ok camera, a bit clumsy to use, and they keep freezing - what’s that all about? It’s just like macs - great to look at but not as usable as a PC
One of the selling points was the touch screen - great for browsing through your phonebook or photos, but not so good when you’re typing with the ends of your fingers like a manic squirrel. And you get greasy finger marks all over the screen too (but maybe I’ve just got particularly greasy fingers!)
The Prada 2, a rehash of the popular Prada (nice original name there - why not Revenge of the Prada instead - that’d get me interested). It’s a good high end mobile though, and looks a lot like the iPhone. It’s almost identical to the original Prada phone too- a big screen and black casing, but this bad boy is a bit thicker because it’s got a slide-out keyboard hidden away.
I don’t know how useful the keyboard is going to be - if you’re just texting you’ll be using the onscreen keyboard, so it’s only for longer emails, and it’s still pretty small - remember, this is coming from someone who finds laptop keyboards too small!
The Prada 2 has got all the things you expect from a luxury mobile - full browsing, Wi-Fi, a 5MP camera, video calling, you know the drill by now. Do you want some numbers? Here goes, and look away if you’re not a numbers geek…..
Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900). WCDMA 900/2100, 7.2 Mbps HSDPA connectivity - they’re good numbers but even I admit they’re a bit dull for a shopping blog. The more meaningful features include a 3″ TFT touch screen with 400×240 pixels, USB 2.0, Bluetooth FM-Radio and TV-out. It runs LG’s own operating system too, rather than Windows mobile or Android from Google.
The Prada 2 is out now and it costs quite a whack, but it’s on a level with its main competitors like the Blackberry Storm and iPhone3G. I think it’s a closely fought battle between the iPhone and Prada 2, so why do I say there’s no contest?
Well because I hate iPhones, so the Prada 2 wins. No one said it was going to be fair.
Rob













